Bakestall

Bakestall barely rises from Skiddaw's northern slope, with only a few metres of drop on the Skiddaw side, but from the valley below it looks like a real mountain. The reason is Dead Crags, a wall of Skiddaw Slate that falls about 150 metres into the corrie on its north face. The slate is crumbly and overgrown, and climbers leave it alone.

The shortest way up starts at Peter House Farm on the Orthwaite road, where a small parking area beside the bridleway has an honesty box for Fix The Fells. A tarmac track, later rough, heads for Skiddaw House and passes Whitewater Dash, where Dash Beck comes down in a series of falls. Above the falls you leave the track and climb Birkett Edge, a steep heathery pull beside a fence, past a ruined sheepfold. The path keeps back from the edge of Dead Crags, but the drop is sheer, so take care.

The other approach is from the car park at the end of Gale Road behind Latrigg. You follow the Cumbria Way round Lonscale Fell to Skiddaw House, then down the supply track to the falls, and the climb begins there. From Bakestall the fence leads on up to Skiddaw, and you can come home over Little Man.

The highest point is at a fence junction. A large cairn about 100 metres north looks over the edge and makes a better stop. Skiddaw blocks the view south, but northwards you see the Solway Firth and the hills of the Scottish Border.

A lead mine once worked near Dead Beck, on the western edge of the fell.